墨尔本PTE素材库—Exoplanets Make Life Conversation Livelier

Exoplanets Make Life Conversation Livelier

中文批注

可能不少同学都会觉得，只要涉及到一些科技的内容，涉及到一些太空内容的文章就会觉得难度不小。这可能是因为太空宇宙类的一些专业词汇，一旦文中此类词汇一多，就会对理解产生一定的影响。不过不用太多担心，这类单词并不是必须背出来的读写词汇，如果能做到认知，那就差不多了哦！如果在第一遍听力练习和第二遍阅读练习的时候还不认识这些单词，那么可以参考下来的vocabulary list，然后再仔细读一遍做深层的阅读理解哦！

澳大利亚语言学院，简称AIL， 会给大家定期整理一些适合PTE考生复习的素材，在有限的复习材料之余能额外做一些扩展的练习。在扩充知识面的同时，也能够扩展大家各方面的词汇量~

[Key Vocabulary]

Astronomer: n. 天文学家

Catalogue: Vt. 把… 编入目录

Exoplanet: 外星球，外行星

Revelation: n. 启示，揭露，出乎意料的事，被揭露的真相

Revolution: n. 革命，旋转，运行

Abundant: adj. 丰富的，充裕的，盛产

Incubator: n. [禽] 孵卵器； [儿科] 保温箱

Odds: n. 几率，胜算，不平等，差别

Alter: Vt. 改变，更改

Planetary: adj. 行星的

Politician: n. 政治家。政客

Abundance: n. 充裕，丰富

Full Transcript

Astronomer Caleb Scharf weighs what ever more exoplanets mean in the search for extraterrestrial life.

Astronomers have catalogued more than 3,500 exoplanets since the first one was found in 1988.

“Part of the revelation and the revolution that’s going on is that actually planets are incredibly abundant and that means that potential incubators for life are everywhere in the universe.”

Columbia University astronomer and Scientific American blogger Caleb Scharf. He was part of a conversation about life in the universe at N.Y.U. on March 22nd. At which he was asked what our new understanding of the abundance of exoplanets out there does to the odds of finding life.

“What it definitely does is increase the odds of us finding an answer. I think. I think that we can say with some confidence. Because we didn’t know that there was so many planets around other stars 20 years ago…and that also means that plenty of them are pretty nearby to us. So what it definitely alters are the odds on us getting some answers.

“Because suppose planets were actually very rare. Suppose the solar system was sitting here and then you had to go a thousand light years to the next planetary system. That would be difficult for us if we wanted to study those planets because they’re a long way away. So I’m doing the politician thing of kind of circling around the question here. So it definitely, the abundance of planets improves the odds of us obtaining an answer, which is huge. Don’t underestimate that. What does it mean for the actual probability of there being other life out there and how often it occurs? If I’m completely honest with you—we don’t know.”

You can watch the full 90-minute discussion featuring Scharf, Scientific American’s Lee Billings and Wall Street Journal science writer Robert Lee Hotz at the N.Y.U. Journalism Web site. Just go to journalism.nyu.edu and look for the series of Kavli Conversations on Science Communication.

—Steve Mirsky

(Source: https://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/exoplanets-make-life-conversation-livelier/)